North American speakers at a controversial series of forums across Australia conducted by Greenpeace have warned farmers contamination of conventional crops with genetically modifed plants is “inevitable.”
They have also warned of a real danger of litigation and “closed circuit farming” should growers persist with GM crops and that the claimed financial benefits of GM canola are illusory.
The speakers, Ross Murray, a farmer from Saskatchewan, Canada, and seed cleaner, Moe Parr, Indiana, US, have spoken at farmer forums in Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria and ended their series of four NSW meetings at Orange on Tuesday.
Mr Parr said biotech companies such as Bayer, Syngenta and Monsanto were “right through the supply chain” and the concept of closed circuit farming was a reality – “you can buy your seed, inputs and then sell, all to the same company”.
Mr Murray claimed the numbers quoted for Canadian farmers growing GM canola “just do not add up.”
“It doesn’t yield better than conventional crops and it costs more to grow, but now Canadian farmers don’t have a choice as non-GM canola has been eliminated by genetic contamination.”
Read the full story in this week's The Land.
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